The Bauman Family Foundation is a foundation that has donated millions of dollars to left-of-center causes over the past decade.¹ The foundation also has ties to the Democracy Alliance. The foundation’s head, Patricia Bauman, is a Democratic donor who has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to progressive and Democratic candidates for office.²

History

The foundation was founded in 1982 by New York businessman Lionel Bauman. He was described as a supporter of the arts, education, and liberal politics.³ Lionel died in 1987, and his foundation was the beneficiary of his estate.

Influence

The foundation supports various environmentalist groups such as Greenpeace, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Sierra Club, and the Union of Concerned Scientists.⁴ The foundation has also donated to various community organizing organizations such as the Center for Community Change, the American Institute for Social Justice, and the Gamaliel Foundation  ⁴

The foundation also supports liberal voter registration initiatives. It supports the Voter Participation Center, an organization that has ties to former Hillary Clinton staffers that works to register voters in key left-leaning demographics such as unmarried women and minorities.⁵ The foundation has also provided money to the Advancement Project which fights against voter ID laws. It also fights for universal voter registration, new redistricting laws, and restoring the right to vote for felons.⁶

The foundation has also supported Project Vote, a liberal-aligned voter registration organization that was associated with the controversial now-defunct Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) left-wing activism network. In 2008 the organization was allegedly involved in a scheme involving the Barack Obama presidential campaign to shuffle money from Project Vote into Obama campaign coffers. The Obama campaign furnished Project Vote with a list of donors who had contributed the maximum amount allowed by law to the Obama campaign. Those donors were then persuaded to donate money to Project Vote and that money would be in turn used to register voters likely to vote for Obama.⁷

Finances

The foundation has an endowment of $83 million as of 2015.⁸ The foundation gave out $7 million in grants. Among the organizations receiving grants were the Advancement Project which received $56,000, the Brennan Center for Justice which received $250,000, the Center for American Progress which received $25,000, the ColorofChange.org Education Fund which received $75,000, Media Matters which received $125,000, UnidosUS (formerly the National Council of La Raza) which received $50,000, the Natural Resources Defense Council which received $150,000, and the Tides Foundation which received $500,000.

The foundation also donated large sums of money to organizations that advance left-wing politics in the Southern United States. Among the groups awarded grants were Blueprint North Carolina which was given $20,000, the Common Cause Education Fund which received $75,000, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice who got $20,000.

Leadership

Patricia Bauman runs the foundation. She is a Democratic donor who has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to progressive and Democratic candidates for office. She was a contributor to both of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns, money to Hillary Clinton’s U.S. Senate campaign, and donated money to the Democratic Party itself, among other left-wing candidates and committees.⁹

The foundation has a board of advisors. Among those that sit on the board are David Brock, the head of Media Matters for America. Anne Bartley, Deepak Bhargava, Anne Hess, Gerald Torres, and Naomi Walker also sit on the board. ¹⁰

Bauman’s husband, John Landrum Bryant, also sits on the board. He was sued in 2012 for sexual harassment after a former employee accused him of trying to coerce him into a sexual relationship.¹¹ It is unclear what came of the case.

1. McMorris, Bill. 2012. “Report: Husband Of Democratic Donor Accused Of Sexually Harassing Domestic Worker”. Washington Free Beacon. Accessed September 28 2017. http://freebeacon.com/politics/house-boy-blues/.
2. Markay, Lachlan. 2015. “Top Donors Help Steer Democracy Alliance’S 2016 Strategy”. Washington Free Beacon. Accessed October 18 2017. http://freebeacon.com/politics/top-donors-help-steer-democracy-alliances-2016-strategy/.
3. “About The Bauman Foundation | The Bauman Foundation”. 2017. Baumanfoundation.Org. Accessed September 28 2017. http://www.baumanfoundation.org/about-us/foundation.
4. “Bauman Family Foundation – Discover The Networks”. 2017. Discoverthenetworks.Org. Accessed September 28 2017. http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/funderprofile.asp?fndid=5305&category=79.
5. “Voter Participation Center | The Bauman Foundation”. 2017. Baumanfoundation.Org. Accessed September 28 2017. http://www.baumanfoundation.org/grantee/24.
6. “Advancement Project | The Bauman Foundation”. 2017. Baumanfoundation.Org. Accessed October 18 2017. https://www.baumanfoundation.org/grantee/8.
7. “The Bauman Family Foundation: Funding Community Organizers For A Progressive Paradise”. 2017. Capitalresearch.Org. Accessed September 28 2017. https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-bauman-family-foundation-funding-community-organizers-for-a-progressive-paradise/.
8. 2017. Pdfs.Citizenaudit.Org. Accessed September 28 2017. http://pdfs.citizenaudit.org/2015_11_PF/13-3119290_990PF_201506.pdf.
9. “FEC Disclosure Report Search Results”. 2017. Docquery.Fec.Gov. Accessed October 18 2017. http://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/ind_detail/BAUMAN%7CPATRICIA%7CWASHINGTON%7CDC%7C20008%7CBAUMAN+FOUNDATION/.
10. “Board Of Advisors | The Bauman Foundation”. 2017. Baumanfoundation.Org. Accessed September 28 2017. http://www.baumanfoundation.org/about-us/board.
11. McMorris, Bill. “Report: Husband of Democratic donor accused of sexually harassing domestic worker.” Washington Free Beacon. September 10, 2012. Accessed October 02, 2017. http://freebeacon.com/politics/house-boy-blues/